The neighborhood trash is becoming my treasure...

One thing I love about the city we live in is their Bulk Trash pick up. Every other week you have the opportunity to haul out your junk for collection. Having lived in cities where you were responsible for hauling your bulky items to a dump and then paying to leave them there, I really have come to appreciate free curbside service.

Granted that the neighborhoods can look kind of "trashy" during those weeks until it has all been picked up, but in general it keeps the neighborhood free of eyesores. You know...the kind that come about when your neighbor thinks that their broken washing machine looks fine on the side of their house, or worse...on their front porch.

This is Texas...we do have our share. Ahem.

There are poor people that scavenge the hood during these weeks looking for items of value they can resell. I am fine with that. At least they are working!

And then there are people like myself that don't purposefully drive street by street looking for finds, but when passing by something interesting have to stop and take a peek. I am sure I would have died if my mother had stopped and picked something off of someone's curb. Either my girls are used to it, or they just aren't old enough to care yet.

I have found lawn furniture, shelving, and a child's outdoor play slide all just by driving by my neighbor's trash.

Sometimes Jerry is on board and sometimes, well, he is just not. Like the time I picked up this discarded gate.

I love it! I love the color, the painted hardware, the age on it...I think the possibilities are endless. Jerry is just not so sure. Or maybe he is just scared that whatever use I find for it will become a "honey-do" for him. My current idea for it is to cut it down and use it as a screen to hide our outside A/C unit at the edge of our patio. We'll see.

One thing that I have surely learned is that if you see something interesting, you better stop right then and get it...or it will be gone! I once drove by a chest of drawers in excellent condition. I was already envisioning them painted in pink for our girls as I drove home to tell Jerry and get his truck. When we returned, they had already become someone else's treasure.

So when I headed out early this morning and saw this on one of my neighbors' bulk piles, I stopped immediately!


Isn't it cute? Yes, I realize that the seat has been replaced with some kind of funky board. But who cares? No one will know once I get a seat cushion for it...which are all on sale for the end of the season right now.

Our rocker has been lonely on our front porch, and I think this is the perfect freebie to paint and fix up to give it a companion.


And this time, Jerry agrees!

I've already started painting it...will post the after pictures soon.

Just a little gardening adventure...

Spring has sprung here in Texas. We FINALLY are feeling a bit more settled in our new house and can tackle some outdoor chores. But to me, outdoor work really isn't a chore...it is FUN.

I have sooo much blogging to catch up on and I think I am getting back in the groove to finally do it. The last time I uploaded pictures from my camera, my yard looked like this:




Wait, that was just a few weeks ago! When I speak of catching up on blogging, I mean going back to last June. Like June of 2009, when we lived in a different city, went to a different church, and had different activities going on. There is just something in me that still wants to go back and recount some of the highlights. So, watch out!

Not today though...today it is gorgeous and 70 degrees. Yesterday was equally pretty but a little windy and even chilly at times.

The pressure is on in the new 'hood...not to keep up with the Jones', but to keep up with the gardeners. That is my kind of pressure! Apparently the woman who lived here was a master gardener of sorts. We have had 3 separate neighbors approach us on 3 separate occasions singing the praises of her various gardens and trees both in front and back.

She was ill the latter part of her time here though and all we have inherited are a bunch of overgrown beds. We've been warned not to dig anything up until all the perennials come back, but this weekend I got antsy.

We have several beds both front and back. Some are raised and others are not. I am most excited that we have both shady and sunny spots...something I haven't had for several houses.

I decided to tackle a sunny one out front right where everyone turns in to head down the alley. Although it was not the biggest eyesore, it is definitely the one with the most eyes on it and seemed like a good place to start.

This is what I started with. I had put the pansies in a couple of weeks ago. At this point I had already hoed out most of the weeds and possibly some ground cover that was there on purpose. I wasn't sure and didn't like it, so it went away.





Getting them in position.

I picked mostly annuals but a few perennials as well...my first time ever planting Iceland Poppies. Geraniums are my favorite because they bloom well into August here if you keep them cut and watered. My mom often planted snapdragons for us as kids and my girls enjoy them like I did. They are supposedly annuals, but I had them come back at our old house, so we'll see. The daffodils and pansies should be on their way out soon, but I'm hoping the marigolds and snapdragons last through the heat of summer. I planted two variations of Day Lily bulbs in the back center, another first for me. It looks kind of bare back there, but hopefully by June something will be showing up. I'll be keeping my receipt and packaging and taking Lowe's up on their "guaranteed to bloom" offer just in case.

All done!

And while I was having fun out front, my hubby was NOT having fun out back. Poor guy. One thing we lost with moving was STORAGE. In a serious way. We had a two car garage, a huge storage shed, an attic above the garage and an additional attic above the second story. Not to mention tons of internal storage...ALL completely chocked full of stuff. Quite disgusting actually.

We are doing some heart checking, definitely downsizing and purging, tossing and repurposing. But we are still resorting to building a storage shed out back.

I wish I had an after picture of it, but like I said, this project hasn't been fun at all.



Progress is being made though. And although it is after 7PM, it is still full light.

Praise God for Daylight Savings Time.

Now I've just got to break it to the girls that it is NOT a playhouse for them!